The Mummy (2017)
The Mummy is a 2017 American action-adventure film directed by Alex Kurtzman and written by David Koepp, Christopher McQuarrie and Dylan Kussman, with a story by Kurtzman, Jon Spaihts and Jenny Lumet. It is a reboot of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mummy_%28franchise%29 The Mummy franchise]and the first and only installment in the Universal's Dark Universe. The film stars Tom Cruise, Annabelle Wallis, Sofia Boutella, Jake Johnson, Courtney B. Vance and Russell Crowe. The Mummy premiered at the State Theatre in Sydney, Australia on May 22, 2017, and was theatrically released in the United States on June 9, 2017, in 2D, 3D and IMAX 3D. It received negative reviews from critics and grossed over $407 million worldwide. It was labeled a box office disappointment given its high production and marketing costs, with projected losses of around $95 million. Plot In 1127 A.D., several English crusader knights bury an Egyptian ruby within the tomb of one of their number. In present-day London, a construction crew discovers the tomb and a mysterious man is authorized to investigate the site. Ominous reporting on the news notes that people are not as far from important relics of the past as they realize. In a flashback to the New Kingdom era, Princess Ahmanet is first in line to succeed her father Menehptre until his second wife gives birth to a son. Determined to claim the throne for herself, Ahmanet summons Set, who agrees to help her if she uses a mystical dagger to transfer his spirit into a corporeal form. After killing her family, Ahmanet attempts to sacrifice her lover to Set but is captured by her father's priests and condemned to be mummified alive for eternity. Her sarcophagus is buried in Mesopotamia and submerged in a pool of mercury so that her monstrous form will not escape. In present-day Iraq, Sergeant Nick Morton and Corporal Chris Vail, while on Long Range Reconnaissance for the U.S. Army, discover the tomb of Ahmanet after calling in an airstrike on an insurgent stronghold. Jennifer Halsey, an archaeologist who had a one-night stand with Nick, arrives and investigates the tomb, correctly concluding that it is a prison. After Nick extracts Ahmanet's sarcophagus from a pool of mercury, Nick's superior, Colonel Greenway, places it on a transport plane headed to England. During the flight, Vail becomes possessed by Ahmanet's power after being bitten by a camel spider while inside the tomb. After attempting to open the sarcophagus, he stabs Greenway and tries to attack the group, forcing Nick to kill him. A huge number of crows then assault the plane, causing it to crash and killing everyone on board except for Jennifer, who is parachuted off the plane by Nick. Nick awakens a day later in a morgue in Oxford, discovering that he has been brought back to life by unknown means, and he learns from Vail's sardonic ghost that he has been cursed by Ahmanet, who seeks to use him as a replacement vessel for Set. Ahmanet's mummy escapes from the sarcophagus and begins feeding on rescue workers to regenerate her decomposed body. Turning the workers into zombie minions, she lures Nick and Jennifer into a trap, forcing the two to fight off the minions as they unsuccessfully try to escape. Ahmanet also recovers the 'Dagger of Set' from a reliquary in a nearby church. At the last moment, however, unknown soldiers appear and subdue Ahmanet. Their leader, Dr. Henry Jekyll, explains that Jennifer is an agent of Prodigium, a secret society dedicated to hunting supernatural threats. He reveals much of his own history and confirms that Nick was cursed when Ahmanet's tomb was opened. Although first welcoming Dr. Jekyll's help, Nick (as well as Jennifer) become horrified to discover the doctor's intention to complete the ritual, allowing Set to possess Nick completely, in the belief that this will render Set vulnerable and allow his evil to be ended forever. Meanwhile, Ahmanet summons a spider to possess a Prodigium technician and frees herself from captivity, wreaking havoc, death, and destruction in the process. After verbally sparring with Nick, Jekyll succumbs to his own dark impulses and transforms into Edward Hyde, his murderous and psychotic alternate personality, even as Ahmanet wreaks havoc outside unbeknownst to them. Nick rebuffs the repulsive Hyde's offer of an alliance between them, and Hyde attacks him. However, Nick manages to stop him with the serum Jekyll uses to suppress his evil side. He and Jennifer then escape from Prodigium, but they run into Ahmanet once again. She steals back the dagger, summons an army of deceased English crusaders to serve her, and creates a massive sandstorm that ravages London, with Nick and Jennifer narrowly escaping her grasp. The undead knights slaughter the Prodigium soldiers in the tomb discovered during the film's opening, and Ahmanet finally recovers the ruby and places it in the dagger's pommel, granting her all that she needs to free Set aside from Nick himself. Guided by the spectral Vail, Nick and Jennifer flee into the London Underground tunnels, but they are soon attacked by Ahmanet's minions. Ahmanet captures Jennifer and drowns her, hoping to break her hold over Nick. Nick puts up a determined fight, but he gives up and lets himself embrace Ahmanet, using it as a ruse to steal the dagger and shatter the ruby. However, he sees the lifeless Jennifer and bets on stabbing himself. His body is partially possessed by Set, who proceeds to join Ahmanet to uphold his end of the bargain. However, looking back at Jennifer's dead body, Nick regains control, using Set's powers to overpower and suck the life out of Ahmanet. With her transformed back into a shriveled mummy, Nick then harnesses Set's powers to resurrect Jennifer, saying goodbye before becoming overwhelmed by Set's nature and disappearing. Soon, Jennifer regroups with Dr. Jekyll, and they tensely discuss if Nick, now fused with Set in an uncertain way, will use his powers for good, evil, or something else entirely. Ahmanet's corpse is lowered into a locked pool of mercury within the Prodigium base for safekeeping. Later on in the desert, Nick resurrects Vail, and the two set out on a new adventure. Production Universal Pictures first announced plans for a modern reboot of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mummy_%28franchise%29 The Mummy franchise] in 2012. The project went through multiple directors, with Len Wiseman leaving the project in 2013, and a second director, Andrés Muschietti, in 2014. Tom Cruise began talks about playing the lead in November 2015, with Sofia Boutella beginning talks that December. Kurtzman cast Boutella after seeing and being impressed by her largely mute performance in Kingsman: The Secret Service. Kurtzman noted that "if you look at her eyes, and this is what I got from watching Kingsman, there's a whole performance going on here. And in not saying anything but conveying that much to me, I thought oh my god, no matter how much prosthetics we put on her, no matter how much CG we put on her face, if I see this, she's going to convey something very emotional to me. Other casting news was announced between March and May, with Russell Crowe joining during the latter month. Shortly after the film opened, Variety reported that Cruise had excessive control over the film and firm control of nearly every aspect of production and post-production, including re-writing the script and editing to his specifications, telling Kurtzman how to direct on set, and enlarging his role while downplaying Boutella's. Universal contractually guaranteed Cruise control of most aspects of the project, from script approval to post-production decisions. Release Initially scheduled for a 2016 release, the film was released in the United States and Canada on June 9, 2017, with international roll out beginning the same day. The film was screened in various formats, such as 2D, 3D and IMAX 3D. On December 20, 2016, IMAX released a trailer with the wrong audio track attached; this unintentionally prompted the creation of memes and video montages featuring the mistakenly included audio track, which was missing most of the sound effects and instead featured Tom Cruise's grunts and screams.43 IMAX reacted by taking down the trailer and issuing DMCA takedown notices in an attempt to stop it from spreading. Following the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing on May 22, Universal cancelled the film's U.K. premiere, which had been scheduled to take place in London on June 1.